The present invention refers to a coffee machine, and in particular to a coffee maker of the kind commonly designated by the term “moka”, and to an improved method for preparing a coffee-flavoured drink.
Moka coffee makers are mainly made of alloys of steel, aluminium or ceramics and provide some indisputable advantages, such as their simplicity of use and maintenance and their low purchase price.
However, it is well-known that the coffee prepared with such coffee makers is of lower quality with respect to the one that can be had at a bar.
The principles exploited for preparing expresso coffee are basically different from those exploited in moka coffee makers; this is basically the reason for the differences in quality, and above all in taste.
In coffee prepared at home in a moka coffee maker, the water in the boiler reaches high temperatures (greater than 100° C.) due to the pressure that is generated in the latter and then contributes to allow water to rise and flow through the coffee-containing filter up to the top container collecting the prepared drink.
However, the above-described method, above all owing to the high temperatures of the water coming into contact with the coffee powder, sensibly alters the organoleptic properties of the coffee itself, burning most of the fatty component, the one giving “body” to the drink and producing the well-known aroma.
Therefore, the resulting coffee generally is a very fluid drink, of low thickness and body and scarcely aromatic. Proof of the above is the fact that the coffee thus prepared is never accompanied by a high quantity of “cream”, significant of the preservation of such fatty components.
Moreover, the temperature reached by the water during the preparing is also excessive for an immediate consumption, forcing the user to wait for the coffee to cool down to an acceptable temperature.
The alternative to such a preparing is just that of an expresso coffee prepared as at a bar.
In fact, to obtain a high-quality coffee these professional machines must adopt a set of technical contrivances allowing a very accurate control of all the parameters coming into play, from temperature to water pressure.
At coffee bars, the famed expresso coffee (an Italian source of worldwide pride) is obtained by using professional machines, which however are very sophisticated and expensive, in the operation as well as the maintenance thereof.
A household alternative to professional machines for coffee bar use is represented by small expresso coffee machines, which on principle should work similarly to the former and therefore prepare an alike coffee.
However, it has to be pointed out that while a professional machine used at a coffee bar is controlled at all times, used with the right coffee and its maintenance and cleaning is regularly carried out, often household machines are improperly used, the coffee used is not always the right one, the water used is nearly always rich in calcareous deposits, thereby deteriorating over extremely short times. On the other hand, those are machines belonging to a sophisticated typology, adapted to household operation by often coming to compromises between costs and quality.